The name is written guaycurú or guaicurú in Spanish (plural guaycurúes or guaicurúes), and guaicuru in Portuguese (plural guaicurus). It was originally an offensive epithet given to the Mbayá people of Paraguay by the Guarani, meaning "savage" or "barbarian", which later was extended to the whole group. It has also been used in the past to include other peoples of the Chaco region, but is now restricted to those speaking a Guaicuruan language.
First encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, the Guaycuru peoples strongly resisted Spanish control and the efforts of Catholic missionaries to Christianize them. They were not fully pacified until the early 20th century.
Divisions
The 16th century Guaycuru appear to have been a southern band of the Mbaya rather than a separate people. The terms Mbaya and Guaycuru were synonymous to the early Spanish colonists. Guaycuru came to be the collective name applied to all the bands speaking similar languages, called Guaycuruan.[2]
The Mocoví, Toba, and Pilagá call themselves qom and appear to form a linguistic and ethnic continuum.[1] They have been placed together with the Abipón in the "Southern" division, while the Kadiweu are placed by themselves in a "Northern" division. The placement of the Payaguá in this classification is still controversial.[1]
Some authors, such as Quevedo, Hunt, Mason, Greenberg and Viegas Barros, have joined the Guaycuru and the Mataguay languages into a larger Mataco–Guaycuru language family, but it is not clear yet whether the similarities between the vocabularies of the two families are due to a common origin or to borrowing.[1]
Culture
The Guaycuru peoples lived mostly west of the Parana and Paraguay Rivers from Santa Fe in Argentina northward to Brazil and Bolivia.
The Guaycuru people consisted of many bands making up distinct ethnic groups with different but similar languages. The Guaycuruans were never politically united and were often hostile to each other as well as to other peoples.[3]
When first encountered in the 16th century, the Guaycuru lived in the Gran Chaco, an inhospitable region for agriculture and settlement in the eyes of the Spanish colonists. They were hunter-gatherers and nomadic, moving from place to place as dictated by seasonal resources. The governor of Paraguay, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, said in the 1540s of the Guaycuru:
"These Indians are great warriors and valiant men, who live on venison, butter, honey, fish, and wild boar...They go daily to the chase for it is their only occupation. They are nimble and quick, so long-winded that they tire out the deer and catch them with their hands...They are kind to their wives...They are much feared by all the other tribes. They never remain more than two days in one place, but quickly remove their houses, made of matting..."[4]
The Abipón Guaycuruans acquired horses from the Spanish in the late 16th century and within 50 years developed a horse culture similar to that of the Plains Indians of North America. They and other Guaycuruans acquired horses and cattle by raiding Spanish haciendas and Guaraní settlements and Jesuit missions east of the Paraguay and Parana rivers. Between raids they traded skins, wax, honey, salt, and Guaraní slaves to the Spanish en exchange for knives, hatchets, and other products. The mobility afforded by the horse facilitated Guaycuruan control over other peoples in the Chaco and made raiding the Spaniards and their Indian allies a profitable enterprise.[5]
The Payaguá, inhabiting the shores of the Paraguay River north of the city of Asunción, were an exception to the horse culture of other Guaycuruans. The Payagua plied the river in canoes, fished and gathered edible plants, and raided their agricultural neighbors, the Guaraní, to the east. The Payaguá also became great traders, both with the Spanish and other Guaycuruans. The Payaguá menaced Spanish travel on the Paraguay river for 200 years.[6]
The bands and family groups making up the Guaycuruans were matrilocal and exogamous. The bands only united on ceremonial occasions, especially during the harvest period for wild honey and algarroba (Prosopis) pods which were used to produce a fermented alcoholic beverage. The reunions were used to designate leaders, reinforce relations among the bands, and facilitate courtships and marriages.[7]
The Guaycuruan population of the Chaco in pre-Hispanic times has been estimated to be as high as 500,000 people. Although documentation is mostly lacking, the Guaycuruans were impacted by epidemics of European diseases, but possibly less than their settled, agricultural neighbors such as the Guaraní, The Guaycuruan population in the mid 17th century is estimated at 40,000.[8]
History
In 1542, Cabeza de Vaca responded to the request of the Guaraní to punish the hostile Guaycuru. He dispatched a large expedition of Spaniard and Guaraní soldiers from Asunción and attacked an encampment of Mbayas, also called Eyiguayegis. The Spanish and Guaraní killed many and took 400 prisoners. In the aftermath of the battle, however, the Guaycuruans retained their control of the Chaco and gradually acquired horses, a taste for Spanish beef, and iron weapons and tools. In the 17th century, Guaycuruan raids forced the abandonment of Concepción del Bermejo, Argentina and the relocation of Santa Fe, Argentina. In retaliation, in 1677, the Spanish massacred 300 Mbayan traders who were camped near Asunsción. By the early 1700s, bands of up to 400 Guaycuruan warriors were attacking Spanish settlements in Tucuman and other nearby Argentine provinces. Their raids forced the Spanish to abandon some frontier areas. Frequent Spanish military expeditions against the Guaycuruans were only temporarily successful if at all.[9]
The Guaycuruans largest raid came in 1735 when 1,000 Mocobis and Tobas descended upon Salta Province, Argentina. They killed or captured hundreds of people, ransoming some captives and keeping others as slaves, and much livestock. Mbaya raids in Paraguay during the same decade resulted in the death of 500 Paraguayans and the theft of 6,000 head of livestock. However, Guaycuruan power had reached its zenith. A smallpox epidemic from 1732 to 1736 killed many, especially Mocobis; Spanish settlements were encroaching on the Chaco, and some of the Guaycuruans were adopting Spanish culture and religion. Moreover, the human pressure on the Chaco led to its environmental deterioration and it became less suitable as a habitat for the traditional hunting-gathering culture plus horse and cattle herds of the Chaco peoples.[10]
Jesuit missionaries made unsuccessful attempts to establish missions or reductions among the Guaycuruans in the early 1600s. Their first successful mission was established among the Mocobis at San Javier, north of Santa Fe, Argentina in 1743. Several other missions were established among the various ethnic groups of the Guaycuru and the mission population reached a peak of 5,000 to 6,000 in the early 1780s. The population of the missions was unstable as many Guaycuruans returned to their nomadic ways after a residence at a mission. Many Guaycuruans were also, by this time, integrated into the Spanish economy, raising livestock, growing crops, and working for wages--although many also continued smuggling and stealing livestock and remained hostile to the Spanish.[11]
By the early 19th century, when the South American countries sought independence from Spain, the Guaycuruan peoples were divided among those who lived in missions and were at least partially integrated into Hispanic and Christian society and those who continued to live as nomads in the more isolated parts of the Gran Chaco. In the independence movement of the 1810s and 1820s some Guaycuruans served with the colonial independence armies, others resumed their raiding ways and expelled settlers from part of the Argentine Chaco. However, old animosities among the various ethnic groups making up the Guaycuruans led to internecine warfare among Tobas, Macobis, and Albipones. The Mbayas were increasingly absorbed into Brazilian society. [12]
Only a "small, depressed colony" of the once powerful Payaguá still survived near Asunción in 1852.[13] The last known Payaguá, Maria Dominga Miranda, died in the early 1940s.[14] The Abipón became extinct in the last half of the 19th century.[15] The Mbayas were given land by Brazil for their assistance in the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), but survive only as the Kadiweu, numbering 1,400 in 2014..[16]
The still-nomadic Tobas and Mocovis in the Argentine Chaco continued to resist the advancing frontier until 1884, when they were decisively defeated by the army; while a number of them agreed to thereafter live in reductions, thousands of Tobas retreated to isolated regions of Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia and retained some level of autonomy into the 20th century. In 1904, a millenarian movement, similar to that of the Ghost Dance in the North American West, erupted among the Mocovis of San Javier, Santa Fe, Argentina, but was quickly squelched when 500 of them were repulsed after an attack on the town. In 1924, Argentine police and military killed 400 Toba in what was called the Napalpí massacre.[17]
In the 1968 census 16,548 Tobas and 1,202 of the closely related Pilagás were counted in Argentina. 2,600 Tobas were living in Bolivia. 3,000 to 6,000 Mocovis lived in Argentina in 1968.[18]
Related Research Articles
The Abipones were an indigenous people of Argentina's Gran Chaco region, speakers of one of the Guaicuruan languages. They ceased to exist as an independent ethnic group in the early 19th century. A small number of survivors assimilated into Argentine society.
The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where it is connected with the Pantanal region. This land is sometimes called the Chaco Plain.
The indigenous Gran Chaco people consist of approximately thirty-five tribal groups in the Gran Chaco of South America. Because, like the Great Plains of North America, the terrain lent itself to a nomadic lifestyle, there is little to no archaeological evidence of their prehistoric occupation. Contributing to this near-absence of archaeological data is the lack of suitable raw material for stone tools or permanent construction and soil conditions that are not conducive to the preservation of organic material.
The Toba people, also known as the Qom people, are one of the largest indigenous groups in Argentina who historically inhabited the region known today as the Pampas of the Central Chaco. During the 16th century, the Qom inhabited a large part of what is today northern Argentina, in the current provinces of Salta, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Formosa and the province of Gran Chaco in the southeast of the Department of Tarija in Bolivia. Currently, many Toba, due to persecution in their rural ancestral regions, live in the suburbs of San Ramón de la Nueva Orán, Salta, Tartagal, Resistencia, Charata, Formosa, Rosario and Santa Fe and in Greater Buenos Aires. Nearly 130,000 people currently identify themselves as Toba or Qom. With more than 120,000 Qom living in Argentina, the Qom community is one of the largest indigenous communities in the country.
Guaicuruan is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil. The speakers of the languages are often collectively called the Guaycuru peoples. For the most part, the Guaycuruans lived in the Gran Chaco and were nomadic and warlike, until finally subdued by the various countries of the region in the 19th century.
Mataguayo–Guaicuru, Mataco–Guaicuru or Macro-Waikurúan is a proposed language family consisting of the Mataguayan and Guaicuruan languages. Pedro Viegas Barros claims to have demonstrated it. These languages are spoken in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
Toba Qom is a Guaicuruan language spoken in South America by the Toba people. The language is known by a variety of names including Toba, Qom or Kom, Chaco Sur, and Toba Sur. In Argentina, it is most widely dispersed in the eastern regions of the provinces of Formosa and Chaco, where the majority of the approximately 19,810 speakers reside. The language is distinct from Toba-Pilagá and Paraguayan Toba-Maskoy. There are also 146 Toba speakers in Bolivia where it is known as Qom and in Paraguay where it is also known as Qob or Toba-Qom.
The Mocoví language is a Guaicuruan language of Argentina spoken by about 3,000 people, mostly in Santa Fe, Chaco, and Formosa provinces.
The Mbayá or Mbyá are an indigenous people of South America which formerly ranged on both sides of the Paraguay River, on the north and northwestern Paraguay frontier, eastern Bolivia, and in the adjacent province of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. They have also been called Caduveo. In the 16th century the Mbayá were called Guaycuru, a name later used generically for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco. The Kadiwéu people of Brazil are the surviving branch of the Mbayá.
Spanish is the language that is predominantly understood and spoken as a first, or second language by nearly all of the population of Argentina. According to the latest estimations, the population is currently greater than 45 million.
Pilagá is a Guaicuruan language spoken by 4,000 people in the Bermejo and Pilcomayo River valleys, western Formosa Province, in northeastern Argentina.
Aleixo Garcia, also known in Spanish as Alejo García, was a Portuguese explorer and conquistador in service to Spain. He was a castaway who lived in Brazil and explored Paraguay and Bolivia. On a raiding expedition with a Guaraní army, Garcia and a few colleagues were the first Europeans known to have come into contact with the Inca Empire.
The Mocoví are an indigenous people of the Gran Chaco region of South America. They speak the Mocoví language and are one of the ethnic groups belonging to the Guaycuru peoples. In the 2010 Argentine census, 22,439 people self-identified as Mocoví.
Chané is the collective name for the southernmost Arawakan-speaking peoples. They lived in the plains of the northern Gran Chaco and in the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. The historical Chané are divided into two principal groups. The Chané proper who lived in eastern Bolivia and the Guaná who lived in Paraguay and adjacent Brazil. Twenty-first century survivors of the Chané are the Izoceno people of Bolivia and 3,034 descendants reported in Argentina by the 2010 census. Survivors of the Guaná are the Tereno and the Kinikinao both of Mato Grosso do Sul province in Brazil.
Long before Spanish conquistadors discovered Paraguay for King Charles V in 1524, semi-nomadic Chaco Indian tribes populated Paraguay's rugged landscape. Although few relics or physical landmarks remain from these tribes, the fact that nearly 90 percent of Paraguayans still understand the indigenous Guarani language is testament to Paraguay's Indian lineage. The Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1524 and founded Asunción in 1537. Paraguay's colonial experience differed from that of neighboring countries, such as Bolivia and Argentina, because it did not have gold and other mineral deposits that the Spanish were searching for. Because of its lack of mineral wealth and its remoteness, Paraguay remained underpopulated and economically underdeveloped. Early governor Domingo Martínez de Irala took an Indian wife and a series of Indian concubines and encouraged other male settlers to do likewise. Intermarriage fused Indian culture with that of the Europeans, creating the mestizo class that dominates Paraguay today. From the beginning, however, Indians retained their Guaraní language, even as Spanish influence was accepted, and embraced, in other aspects of society.
The Kadiwéu are an indigenous people of Brazil. In 1998, they lived in four villages, with some families living independently in the jungle. They are known for their horse riding skills.
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The Payaguá people, also called Evueví and Evebe, were an ethnic group of the Guaycuru peoples in the Northern Chaco of Paraguay. The Payaguá were a river tribe, living, hunting, fishing, and raiding on the Paraguay River. The name Payaguá was given to them by the Guaraní, their enemies whom they constantly fought. It is possible that the name of the Paraguay River, and thus the country Paraguay itself, comes from this; the Guaraní told the Spanish that the river was the "Payaguá-ý", or "river of Payaguás." The name they called themselves was probably Evueví, "people of the river" or "water people." The Payaguá were also known to early Spanish explorers as "Agaces" and spelling variations of that name.
Itatín was a 17th century region, corresponding to the western half of the 21st century Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The indigenous people inhabiting the region gave their name to Itatín. The Itatínes were related to the Guaraní who lived to their south in Paraguay. In 1631, the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic church began founding missions in Itatín but the missions failed in 1648 because of slave raids by the Bandeirantes of Brazil and revolts against the Jesuits. Considered part of colonial Paraguay, Itatín was ceded to Brazil in 1750 by the Treaty of Madrid. The name has fallen out of use.
References
1 2 3 4 5 Alain Fabre (2006), Los guaykurú, Part 3 of Los pueblos del Gran Chaco y sus lenguas. Suplemento Antropológico, volume 41 issue 2, pp. 7–132. Asunción, Paraguay. , accessed on 15 Nov 2017.
↑ Steward, Julian H., ed. (1946), Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 1, The Marginal Tribes, Smithsonian Institution, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., p. 215
↑ Saegar, James Schofield (2000), The Chaco Mission Frontier: The Guaycuruan Experience, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 3-5. Anthropologists have resisted calling the Guaycuruan ethnic groups "tribes" as no tribal government or distinct tribal territories existed.
↑ Gott, Richard (1993), Land without Evil: Utopian Journeys across the South American Watershed, New York: Verso, pp 49-50. It is unclear what Cabeza de Vaca meant by "butter" as the Guaycuru had no livestock in the 16th century.
↑ Ganson, Barbara (2017), "The Evueví of Paraguay: Adaptive Strategies and Responses to Colonialism", The Americas, Vol 74, Issue 52, p. 463. Downloaded from Project Muse.
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